Global, regional, and national burden of low back pain, 1990–2020, its attributable risk factors, and projections to 2050: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
Authors: Manuela L Ferreira, Katie de Luca, Lydia M Haile, Jaimie D Steinmetz, Garland T Culbreth, Marita Cross, Jacek A Kopec, Paulo H Ferreira, Fiona M Blyth, Rachelle Buchbinder, Jan Hartvigsen, Ai-Min Wu, Saeid Safiri, Anthony D Woolf, Gary S Collins, Kanyin Liane Ong, Stein Emil Vollset, Amanda E Smith, Jessica A Cruz, Kai Glenn Fukutaki, Semagn Mekonnen Abate, Mitra Abbasifard, Mohsen Abbasi-Kangevari, Zeinab Abbasi-Kangevari, Ahmed Abdelalim, Aidin Abedi, Hassan Abidi, Qorinah Estiningtyas Sakilah Adnani, Ali Ahmadi, Rufus Olusola Akinyemi, Abayneh Tadesse Alamer, Adugnaw Zeleke Alem, Yousef Alimohamadi, Mansour Abdullah Alshehri, Mohammed Mansour Alshehri, Hosam Alzahrani, Saeed Amini, Sohrab Amiri, Hubert Amu, Catalina Liliana Andrei, Tudorel Andrei, Benny Antony, Jalal Arabloo, Judie Arulappan, Ashokan Arumugam, Tahira Ashraf, Seyyed Shamsadin Athari, Nefsu Awoke, Sina Azadnajafabad, Till Winfried Bärnighausen, Lope H Barrero, Amadou Barrow, Akbar Barzegar, Lindsay M Bearne, Isabela M Bensenor, Alemshet Yirga Berhie, Bharti Bhandari Bhandari, Vijayalakshmi S Bhojaraja, Ali Bijani, Belay Boda Abule Bodicha, Srinivasa Rao Bolla, Javier Brazo-Sayavera, Andrew M Briggs, Chao Cao, Periklis Charalampous, Vijay Kumar Chattu, Flavia M Cicuttini, Benjamin Clarsen, Sarah Cuschieri, Omid Dadras, Xiaochen Dai, Lalit Dandona, Rakhi Dandona, Azizallah Dehghan, Takele Gezahegn G Demie, Edgar Denova-Gutiérrez, Syed Masudur Rahman Dewan, Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne, Mandira Lamichhane Dhimal, Meghnath Dhimal, Daniel Diaz, Mojtaba Didehdar, Lankamo Ena Digesa, Mengistie Diress, Hoa Thi Do, Linh Phuong Doan, Michael Ekholuenetale, Muhammed Elhadi, Sharareh Eskandarieh, Shahriar Faghani, Jawad Fares, Ali Fatehizadeh, Getahun Fetensa, Irina Filip, Florian Fischer, Richard Charles Franklin, Balasankar Ganesan, Belete Negese Belete Gemeda, Motuma Erena Getachew, Ahmad Ghashghaee, Tiffany K Gill, Mahaveer Golechha, Pouya Goleij, Bhawna Gupta, Nima Hafezi-Nejad, Arvin Haj-Mirzaian, Pawan Kumar Hamal, Asif Hanif, Netanja I Harlianto, Hamidreza Hasani, Simon I Hay, Jeffrey J Hebert, Golnaz Heidari, Mohammad Heidari, Reza Heidari-Soureshjani, Mbuzeleni Mbuzeleni Hlongwa, Mohammad-Salar Hosseini, Alexander Kevin Hsiao, Ivo Iavicoli, Segun Emmanuel Ibitoye, Irena M Ilic, Milena D Ilic, Sheikh Mohammed Shariful Islam, Manthan Dilipkumar Janodia, Ravi Prakash Jha, Har Ashish Jindal, Jost B Jonas, Gebisa Guyasa Kabito, Himal Kandel, Rimple Jeet Kaur, Vikash Ranjan Keshri, Yousef Saleh Khader, Ejaz Ahmad Khan, Md Jobair Khan, Moien AB Khan, Hamid Reza Khayat Kashani, Jagdish Khubchandani, Yun Jin Kim, Adnan Kisa, Jitka Klugarová, Ali-Asghar Kolahi, Hamid Reza Koohestani, Ai Koyanagi, G Anil Kumar, Narinder Kumar, Tea Lallukka, Savita Lasrado, Wei-Chen Lee, Yo Han Lee, Ata Mahmoodpoor, Jeadran N Malagón-Rojas, Mohammad-Reza Malekpour, Reza Malekzadeh, Narges Malih, Man Mohan Mehndiratta, Entezar Mehrabi Nasab, Ritesh G Menezes, Alexios-Fotios A Mentis, Mohamed Kamal Mesregah, Ted R Miller, Mohammad Mirza-Aghazadeh-Attari, Maryam Mobarakabadi, Yousef Mohammad, Esmaeil Mohammadi, Shafiu Mohammed, Ali H Mokdad, Sara Momtazmanesh, Lorenzo Monasta, Mohammad Ali Moni, Ebrahim Mostafavi, Christopher J L Murray, Tapas Sadasivan Nair, Javad Nazari, Seyed Aria Nejadghaderi, Subas Neupane, Sandhya Neupane Kandel, Cuong Tat Nguyen, Ali Nowroozi, Hassan Okati-Aliabad, Emad Omer, Abderrahim Oulhaj, Mayowa O Owolabi, Songhomitra Panda-Jonas, Anamika Pandey, Eun-Kee Park, Shrikant Pawar, Paolo Pedersini, Jeevan Pereira, Mario F P Peres, Ionela-Roxana Petcu, Mohammadreza Pourahmadi, Amir Radfar, Shahram Rahimi-Dehgolan, Vafa Rahimi-Movaghar, Mosiur Rahman, Amir Masoud Rahmani, Nazanin Rajai, Chythra R Rao, Vahid Rashedi, Mohammad-Mahdi Rashidi, Zubair Ahmed Ratan, David Laith Rawaf, Salman Rawaf, Andre M N Renzaho, Negar Rezaei, Zahed Rezaei, Leonardo Roever, Guilherme de Andrade Ruela, Basema Saddik, Amirhossein Sahebkar, Sana Salehi, Francesco Sanmarchi, Sadaf G Sepanlou, Saeed Shahabi, Shayan Shahrokhi, Elaheh Shaker, MohammadBagher Shamsi, Mohammed Shannawaz, Saurab Sharma, Maryam Shaygan, Rahim Ali Sheikhi, Jeevan K Shetty, Rahman Shiri, Siddharudha Shivalli, Parnian Shobeiri, Migbar Mekonnen Sibhat, Ambrish Singh, Jasvinder A Singh, Helen Slater, Marco Solmi, Ranjani Somayaji, Ker-Kan Tan, Rekha Thapar, Seyed Abolfazl Tohidast, Sahel Valadan Tahbaz, Rohollah Valizadeh, Tommi Juhani Vasankari, Narayanaswamy Venketasubramanian, Vasily Vlassov, Bay Vo, Yuan-Pang Wang, Taweewat Wiangkham, Lalit Yadav, Ali Yadollahpour, Seyed Hossein Yahyazadeh Jabbari, Lin Yang, Fereshteh Yazdanpanah, Naohiro Yonemoto, Mustafa Z Younis, Iman Zare, Armin Zarrintan, Mohammad Zoladl, Theo Vos, Lyn M March
Journal: The Lancet Rheumatology (2023)

Low back pain is highly prevalent and the main cause of years lived with disability (YLDs). We present the most up-to-date global, regional, and national data on prevalence and YLDs for low back pain from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021.Population-based studies from 1980 to 2019 identified in a systematic review, international surveys, US medical claims data, and dataset contributions by collaborators were used to estimate the prevalence and YLDs for low back pain from 1990 to 2020, for 204 countries and territories. Low back pain was defined as pain between the 12th ribs and the gluteal folds that lasted a day or more; input data using alternative definitions were adjusted in a network meta-regression analysis. Nested Bayesian meta-regression models were used to estimate prevalence and YLDs by age, sex, year, and location. Prevalence was projected to 2050 by running a regression on prevalence rates using Socio-demographic Index as a predictor, then multiplying them by projected population estimates.In 2020, low back pain affected 619 million (95% uncertainty interval 554-694) people globally, with a projection of 843 million (759-933) prevalent cases by 2050. In 2020, the global age-standardised rate of YLDs was 832 per 100 000 (578-1070). Between 1990 and 2020, age-standardised rates of prevalence and YLDs decreased by 10·4% (10·9-10·0) and 10·5% (11·1-10·0), respectively. A total of 38·8% (28·7-47·0) of YLDs were attributed to occupational factors, smoking, and high BMI.Low back pain remains the leading cause of YLDs globally, and in 2020, there were more than half a billion prevalent cases of low back pain worldwide. While age-standardised rates have decreased modestly over the past three decades, it is projected that globally in 2050, more than 800 million people will have low back pain. Challenges persist in obtaining primary country-level data on low back pain, and there is an urgent need for more high-quality, primary, country-level data on both prevalence and severity distributions to improve accuracy and monitor change.Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.